This Is Not a Tale of Love
by SherlockianMania10
Summary: A hidden romance complicates things as the reaping takes Katniss as a tribute. This is a Prim and Gale fic. Yes, it's an unconventional pairing, but hopefully it turns out okay.
1. Chapter 1

I looked up into his eyes as we lay, hand in hand, behind some bushes near the meadow. The stars overhead were reflected almost perfectly in his twinkling grey-brown eyes. "What?" Gale whispered sweetly to me.

I sat up, still staring into those eyes. "Nothing… It's just-" I hesitated for a long moment.

"What?" he repeated, concern growing in his voice.

"I don't know… I don't… How much longer can we keep this a secret?" Gale looked at me with a vague, slightly confused expression. "Think about how horrified people would be if they knew. The looks we'd get, the hatred spilling from their mouths, the anger- I don't think I could handle it. Katniss is getting suspicious. We can't risk her finding out. Maybe we should just end it-"

"Listen," Gale sat up then, too, and said to me in a stern tone, "I don't care about other people. I don't care about the looks, the words, the anger, I don't care. What I do care about is you. Prim, I know things don't look good for us but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try, does it?"

"Gale, I'm trying to be logical here. It makes more sense to-"

"To what, give up?" I averted my gaze to the grass I had been plucking from the earth. After a slight pause, Gale made his final argument, "I'm being logical, too. I love you, so it's _logical_ for us to be together."

"The age difference, though-"

"Look, I want to be with you, so I will." He interrupted me. I was quite unhappy that Gale finished our disagreement like that, but I was done fighting. Eventually, I nodded in agreement.

Glancing up at the moon then back at me, Gale said, "It's almost midnight. We should go. Tomorrow's the reaping after all." Gale stood and began to stride off. A few paces later, he halted, turned on his heel, and took a bow as he said, "May the odds be _ever_ in your favor," mimicking a Capitol accent. Resentfully, I laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author Note:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own.**

**This chapter is a bit longer than the last one. There isn't a whole lot of Prim and Gale fluff in this chapter. Enjoy!**

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This is not a tale of love, nor is it the tale of the Hunger Games. It is the story of how Gale and I came to grow apart. How our love ended. How my life came to an end…

I jolted awake in my mother's arms. Buttercup was laying at my knees, guarding me from the morning light. Katniss had gone out hunting. She had gone to the hob as well. She'd done these things nearly every morning since a few months after our father died. But it was not every morning that I awoke from a nightmare. My first reaping was to begin in only a few short hours, and, even though my name had been entered only once, I had the strangest feeling that the odds were not in my favor that day.

I tentatively arose from the bed, taking care not to wake my mother. She could've done with a little more sleep. I tiptoed out to the kitchen. Katniss had taken the goat cheese I left for her and Gale.

When Katniss returned, our mother was awake, wearing a fine dress from her younger days, I was dressed in Katniss's first reaping outfit, and Mother had laid out a lovely blue dress for my sister. Katniss bathed, put on her dress, and let my mother put her hair into a rather eccentric and beautiful braid. My sister then tucked the back of my shirt in saying, "Tuck in your tail, little duck."

"Quack," I said, playing along. We ate the food Katniss had brought home, and left for town square at one o'clock. All of District 12 was required to attend the reaping.

* * *

After signing in and finding my place among the other 12-year-old girls, my eyes found Gale. He looked back at me as if he could tell that I was watching him, winked, and mouthed, "Good luck, Prim." Looking up once again, I saw the quite odd-looking capitol woman, Effie Trinket, stride up to the podium on the temporary stage that was in front of the Justice building.

Effie Trinket did her usual speech for the reaping, the mayor spoke, et cetera. I was too distracted by my fears to notice what was going on until I heard Ms. Trinket say, "Ladies first." Pulling a slip of paper from the bottom of the big glass ball which held the girls' names, Effie spoke the two words that I had feared hearing, "Primmrose Everdeen," I stand there, frozen, shocked. My name had been called, despite the 1-in-thousands chance. In that moment, I thought to myself, _I am going to die_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author Note:**

**Thank you for continuing to read this story! Sorry this chapter took so long. Hopefully you're enjoying it so far. I know the pairing is kind of weird, but a friend of mine wanted me to write about them.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine**

**Hope you like chapter 3! Reviews are greatly appreciated!**

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Pure fear engulfed my mind. I could hear the pounding of my heart in my head as I crept stiffly toward the stage steps. Though most sights and sounds were blocked from my perception, my ears detected panicked shuffling and, just before I reached the steps, my senses returned.

"Prim!" My sister's voice filled the square, "I volunteer!" A hush fell over all of District 12, "I volunteer as tribute." Painfully hot tears rushed from my eyes as a group of peacekeepers escorted Katniss to the stage. I stumbled over to her and clung to her and refused to let go. Just then, two strong arms wrapped themselves around my waist and ripped me away from her. I shouted and screamed and kicked, trying with all the strength left in my shuddering body to break free from Gale's iron grip.

My efforts were unsuccessful. I watched in agony as the girl who had kept me alive all these years ascended the stage steps and gazed, blankly and teary-eyed, out at the crowd. She could not bear to look at me, and I could not bear to look away from her.

I paid no attention as Ms. Trinket announced the male tribute. I only saw who it was when Katniss moved across the platform to shake the boy's hand. Peeta Mellark. I'd caught him staring at Katniss now and then… Just staring.

More peacekeepers dragged my sister and Peeta into the Justice building as the large, wooden double-doors closed behind them.

Soon afterward, my mother grabbed me by the hand and, together, we followed another peacekeepers into the Justice building and down a dusty corridor. We were shoved into a room where my sister was waiting atop an exquisite velvet sofa. I ran to her and hugged her, sobbing all the while. Our mother stood there like a statue, a look of pity plastered on her unusually pale face. "You have to try to win for me, Katniss. You have to try to win."

"I will, Prim." I could tell that my sister was trying very hard not to cry. Clearing her throat, Katniss stood and strode over to our mother. She whispered something in her ear that I didn't quite catch, then hugged her and bent down to hug me again. A peacekeeper opened the door to the room and two more entered. They clasped their gloved hands around mine and my mother's arms and began to force us from the room.

I did not want to leave my sister. "You have to win!" I managed to scream before the door slammed in my face. Soon, I would be forced to watch as twenty-three other tributes would try to kill my sister. And as she tried to kill them…


End file.
